David Ball, who is vice-chairman of the highways committee on Wokingham District Council and a parish councillor for Winnersh, could face crippling damages and a hefty legal bill after the High Court judged that the sale, advertisement, possession for commercial purposes, and use of PlayStation 2 modification (or ‘mod’) chips, is illegal in this country.

At the civil hearing last Monday, Mr Justice Laddie ruled that Mr Ball, an IT worker from Grovelands Avenue, had behaved unlawfully when he sold 1,500 Messiah 2 mod chips.

The PlayStation 2 incorporates copy protection and technical protection measures to ensure the consoles will only play European games, and cannot operate pirated or imported games from Japan or the USA.

But Mr Ball, known online as ‘Charlie_ps2’, sold chips which allow Japanese and American software, as well as pirated games, to be played on English consoles.

Charlie_ps2 has been a regular contributor to on-line messageboards, answering technical queries and providing mod-chip reviews and a Messiah 2 installation guide.

There was also a post calling for help with a legal action from Sony in which he said he was “on the receiving end of a heavy legal action by the Sony empire”.

He called for help obtaining packaging of various import games to look at the copyright warnings on them.

The case, which was brought to the High Court by electronic giants Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE), is the first in the UK under the law relating to circumvention of copy protection and technical protection measures, following the implementation in this country of the EU Copyright Directive in October last year.

In the judgement document, Mr Justice Laddie said Mr Ball “knew full well what the chip was supposed to do. Indeed he sometimes assisted customers to install them in their PS2 consoles.”

Matthew Kime, defending, argued that the councillor did not breach Sony’s rights because he did “not know or have reason to believe that the Messiah 2 chip will be used for making infringing copies”.

He claimed that an infringing copy must be “an article” and that this was not the case because the Messiah 2 chip is not used for making unauthorised copies of the CD or DVD.

However, the court heard that the chips work by copying software from the CD or DVD into the console’s memory, and upheld the view that technically this constituted a breach of copyright, even though the copies were temporary and may only be created for a short amount of time.

David Reeves, president of SCEE, said the landmark victory was significant in that it will give prosecutors across the EU the confidence to proceed.

Mr Reeves said: “This case, together with the recent successful criminal case against chippers in Belgium, confirms in the clearest possible terms that Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has the right to prevent the illegal infringement of our intellectual property rights, and those of third party games developers.

“We are sending a clear message to manufacturers and distributors of mod chips that we will continue to pursue legal action against them.”

The decision could mean Cllr Ball’s future as a district councillor is in jeopardy if the compensation demanded by Sony, in addition to legal costs, are so high that he is forced to file for bankruptcy.

Local Government regulations prohibit undischarged bankrupts from holding office at the council.

Claims for damages or compensation and legal costs are expected to be discussed at a High Court hearing later this week.

Cllr Ball declined to comment about the court case to the Wokingham Times.